GST Rollout in J&K in next few days: Piyush Goyal

Bengaluru: Union Power Minister Piyush Goyal on Sunday said that Jammu and Kashmir would roll out GST in the next few days.

"Jammu and Kashmir is the only state which failed to meet the June 30 deadline for the GST rollout. The new indirect tax regime will be implemented there in the next few days," he told PTI on the sidelines of a GST-related event here.

J&K Finance Minister Haseeb Drabu had on Saturday stated in New Delhi that the state is likely to clear the legislation on the indirect tax regime by July 6.

Asked about traders staging protest in Srinagar against GST, Goyal said that protests sometimes are politically motivated, but it is good for the country, otherwise people of Jammu and Kashmir will suffer.

Traders in Srinagar had staged a march against the proposed implementation of GST, which they claimed would lead to erosion of the special status and the fiscal autonomy of Jammu and Kashmir.

On Niti Aayog Member Bibek Debroy's remarks that the talk of GST boosting GDP growth by one per cent to 1.5 percent is 'utter rubbish', he said the Centre was confident of the new indirect tax regime, which will have a very positive and good impact on the economy, because it had looked at the implementation experience of some countries and claims of various schools of thought.

Goyal said Debroy may have his opinion, but that did not mean that the whole country should have the same opinion.

"Each one is entitled to his opinion. We are not having a government where you can't speak," he added.

Debroy had said yesterday that any suggestion that GST would boost GDP growth by 1 to 1.5 percent is "utter rubbish" and termed it as an "imperfect GST", following changes from the originally proposed "ideal" structure.

Goyal said more important than anything else is that India would get rid of corruption and move from an informal economy to a formal economy.

He also said that tax compliance would bring in more money to the government coffers which would be used to render services to the poor and farmers of the country.

"This is the goal of this government on which we are focusing. I think that is also the goal of the whole country because all parties have come together and made GST a reality, and I am sure all parties and all states will make it a grand success," he added.